MY COUNTRY NOTEBOOK

Otago Witness, Issue 3864, 3 April 1928, Page 61

MY COUNTRY NOTEBOOK

By

MURIHIKU.

(Special fob the Otago Witness.) Every country boy knows something about eels. Which one of us has not in his time gone bobbing for eels, or set eel-traps overnight? Easily the biggest fish in our lakes and. rivers, with something of the serpent in its shape and wriggling mannerisms, and with so much mystery surrounding its breeding habits, it is no wonder that the eel a large amount of publicity in our New Zealand papers. As a matter of fact, the regularity with which news paragraphs appear about eels in our daily papers is really remarkable.

And now some enthusiasts suggest that a commercial use could be made of the millions of eels in our rivers—manure, fish meal for pigs and poultry, and a dozen and one other by-products are mentioned. But the difficulty of collecting eels in sufficient numbers and treating them as a commercial proposition is at the present time insurmountable. Indeed the sea fishemmen, with all their surplus catches, their unmarketable species, and their heads and other offal, are not being utilised in any wholesale except in Auckland, where a great deal of fish manure is nowadays manufactured as a by-product from the big trawling industry.

As all New Zealanders know, the Maori had no scruples about using the “tuna ” as food. . Place names like Kaituna occur with great frequency all up and down New Zealand,’ for “ kai ” is food, and “ tuna ” is. the eel. At one old-time feast, given by Te Waharoa, the father of William .Thompson, to the people of Tauranga, the following inventory of the food was taken down by a credible eye-witness: “Upwards of 20,000 dried eels; several tons of sea fish, principally young sharks; a large quantity of hogs; 19 calabashes of shark’s oil; six albatrosses; and baskets of potatoes, sweet and common, without number.” And any Maori to-day will certainly eat as many eels as,he can get hold of.

We pakeha peopledo not esteem the eel as a food fish like the old Maori did. White folk in this country have always had a prejudice against this snake like creature, which wriggles about in the frying pan even when cut up into slices. This prejudice is a very old world one. Let an old writer testify: “ But now let me tell yoii, that though the eel be not only excellent good, but more harmless than any other wav; yet it is certain that physicians account the eel dangerous meat; I will advise you, therefore, as Soloman says of honey, ‘ Hast thou found it, eat no more than is sufficient, lest tltou surfeit; for it is not good to eat much honey.’ And let me’ add this’, that the uncharitable Italian bids' us ‘give eels and no wine to our enemies.’ And I will beg a little more, of your attention to tell you, that Aldrdvaiidus, and divers physicians, commend the eel very much for medicine, though not for meat. But let me tell you one observation, that the eel is never out of season; as trout and most other fish are at set times; at least most eel's are" not.”

The old observation “ that the eel is never out of season ” is a reference to the fact that the fresh-water eel never has a spawning season in fresh water, and so is never out of condition, such as trout or a salmon may be. For we all know that the salmon run up the rivers every season, spawn in the higher reaches, and then die. Where are the young eels born? For ages this has been a considerable mystery. Get hold of any old cyclopaedia, and you will find that all sorts of guesses are made, not two authors agreeing. Everybody knows the adult eel; all have recognised the young elvers working upstream in their season; but after these two points of agreement there is considerable disagreement.

Old writers did not hesitate to set down some reasons. Spontaneous generation is advanced by some, and Isaak Walton, the famous old literary angler sums up the old-time knowledge of the subject:—“And others say that eels, growing old, breed other eels out of the corruption of their own age; which, Sir Francis Bacon says, exceeds not 10 years. And others say, that as pearls are made of glutinous dewdrops, which are condensed by the sun’s heat in those countries, so eels are bred of a particular dew, falling in the months of May or June on the banks of some particular ponds or rivers, adapted by nature for that end; which in a few days are, by the sun’s heat, turned into eels; and some of the ancients have called the cels that are thus bred the offspring of Jove.” Up to the last few years nothing definite was known, although scientists were certain that the great emigration downstream meant that the eels were proceeding to the waters of the sea to spawn—thus having acquired exactly the opposite habits to that of the salmon.

Deep-sea investigators working in the English Channel and around the coasts of Ireland had. traced the big adult eel going towards the Atlantic and the little ones coming back. But it was left for observers on the Danish investigating vessel Dana, in the years 1920 and 1021, to finally set at rest all

the speculations. It was discovered that both the American and European eels spawn in the Western Atlantic, between Bermuda and Leeward Islands, and at a depth of from COOft to 900 ft. The American eels breed south and south-west of Bermuda Island, while the European species is found south and south-east of Bermuda. The young American eel, after emerging from the egg, travels westward, and enters the mouths of American rivers when one year old. The European eel, on the other hand, takes three years to move eastward from their birthplace to the European estuaries, passing up rivers, even to the very heart of Switzerland. The big eels never return to their river homes, dying after spawning, even as the salmon do. * * * The American eel is very similar to the European eel, the only difference apparently being that it has two less vertebrae than its European cousin. Its long life-in fresh water, its final descent to the sea, its spawning but once, and its subsequent death after spawning in almost all details harmonises with the life historv of the Furo-v-'-’n eel *• * * What of the New Zealand eel? Where does the female go to when she puts out to sea? In England, the big eels caught inland are always females. The males generally are smaller, and generally frequent river estuaries and other tidal waters. But so far as I know no research has been carried out in •New Zealand or Australia on this point. All we do know is that all over this country in the Waikato, for instance—large numbers go down to the sea in Jjebiuary and March to breed, although many remain in fresh water all the year lound. rhe young eels come up the rivers at the end of November, just after the whitebait. In our southern rivers, with some variation, the same annual migrations take place, but where the spawning takes place we do not know, nor do we know how old the elver is before it reaches our rivers.

Occasionally we find newspaper references to some parts of our lakes and rivers recording the fact that no eels are present. This can be explained by the fact that on the river up which the elvers run there are some falls or other physical obstacle, up the steep rock face of which the young fish cannot pass. We all know of these places where the little eels, .clinging to one another, struggle determinedly to overcome the obstacles. If- the young fish are born out at sea it is quite obvious if there is any real bar to their progress' upstream, there can be no adult eels in the higher waters. In America they have the same difficulty, z as it is recorded that below Niagara Falls every spring and summer countless numbers o‘f young eels are observed helplessly blocked by the great wall of rock and water.

What is the biggest eel anyone has caught in New Zeaand? In the “Transactions of the New Zealand Institute I find that eels of the species Anguilla Aucklandii are said to be “abundant all over New Zealand, sometimes attaining a length of Oft, and as much as / 01b in weight in one instance, caught jnany years ago in Lake Wakatipu.” this certainly seems an extraordinary weight for a Oft eel—long as that is. This 701 b makes the Taranaki eels look like sprats, for it is recently reported from that district that some enormous eels were taken from the Waiongona Stream between New Plymouth and Waitara one day by a Maori fisherman, Air H. Pratt. A catch of nine eels weighed 831 b 7oz. The two heaviest eels were about sft in length, and they turned the scale at about 201 b each. The formation of an eel club by the Taranaki Acclimatisation Society has aroused the keen interest of fishermen. The offering of a liberal prize for the largest eel caught has been the means of encouraging fishing expeditions. The Alaoris are entering keenly into the contest, and have caught quite a number of eels weighing from 151 b to 201 b. In addition to .Air Pratt’s catch, another eel brought in weighed nearly 201 b. It was taken by Air R. Alanee from a stream near Okato. W hat is the record weight for Otago? And does anyone know anything definitely of the 701 b eel alleged to have been eaught long ago at Wakatipu?